Flying Home for… Nationals🇳🇱

Yesterday evening I arrived back home after three weeks in Finland. I must say, it felt almost professional. Flying home for Nationals.

Actually, that wasn’t entirely a coincidence. I deliberately planned my trip so I’d be back in time for the Dutch National Championships. Tomorrow is the Dutch Elite National Road Race, which is the championship for riders without a professional contract.

Our team is bringing somewhere around sixteen or seventeen riders to the start line. The next biggest team has seven. That immediately makes life both easier and harder. Easier because we have options. Harder because everybody knows we have the options. There won’t be much hiding tomorrow. Every team will be looking at us and expecting us to take responsibility for the race.

The parcours itself is completely flat and located in the north of the country. Not ideal, for me personally, but fortunately, we also have one of the fastest sprinters of the pack. That means the tactics don’t need to become overly complicated. Either we make sure we’re represented in the decisive move. Or we bring it back together and sprint.

The weather forecast suggests another warm day. Temperatures in the Netherlands have been comfortably above 30 degrees for the past week and will continue for at least another. I have probably not had the ideal preparation after spending three weeks in Finland. The Finnish summer is not necessarily great for heat adaptation.

I generally don’t mind racing in warm conditions, but from cool Finnish nights to Dutch tropical temperatures requires some adjustment.

The other goal of the week comes a few days later. On Wednesday I’ll be lining up for the Dutch National Time Trial Championships. Which feels like a bonus! A month ago the bike wasn’t even finished. After that I had only one chance to get enough points to qualify. Which turned out to be enough.

The nice thing about the TT Nationals is that it is a mixed event. No split between pro and 'amateur'.
Which is exactly what makes it interesting. I’ve not looked too much at the course yet. One race at a time. Tomorrow is the road race. After that I’ll start studying the TT course and put together a proper plan.

Today I finally rode my TT bike again for the first time in weeks. The coming days will mostly consist of reminding my body how to ride the thing before Wednesday arrives. Competing against the pros in TT nationals wasn’t really part of the original plan for this season. Now that it’s happening, I’m mostly curious to see where I stand. Maybe next year it becomes a bigger project.

But first, tomorrow’s road race.
Then Nationals, round two.

I’ll keep you posted.

Hayley Simmondsabout 2 hours ago

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Good luck!!

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